The Connect U.S. Fund has launched a new two-year initiative to help shape debate during the upcoming Presidential transition.Â As part of this effort, theyâ€™ve asked leading thinkers and advocates to talk about what should be the top two or three foreign policy priorities for the next President.Â Theyâ€™ve also kindly allowed us to cross-post the responses here.

The series took a brief hiatus during the conventions, but itâ€™s back and will continue from now until the election.Â Today, weâ€™ll hear from David Sandalow.Â You can find the previous posts here.Â Thanks again to Heather Hamilton and Eric Schwartz for making the cross-postings happen.

The dependence of our cars and trucks on oil weakens the United States and constrains our foreign policy.Â The buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere threatens our national security and imperils the planet.Â The next President has an unprecedented opportunity to tackle both problems.

Today, 96 percent of the energy in our cars and trucks comes from oil.Â That dependence lies at the heart of many problems.Â Oil dependence empowers our enemies, endangers our men and women in uniform and undermines democracy around the world.Â It plays a central role in global warming. It strains family budgets when world oil prices rise.

(”Drill here, drill now” is not the answer.Â The nonpartisan Energy Information Agency says drilling in new areas offshore would add roughly 0.3% to global oil supplies in 10 years, with little if any impact on price. Does anyone think Ahmadinejad and Chavez are quaking in their boots at the thought of the US drilling in additional areas offshore?Â Offshore drilling is weak.Â It’s like walking an extra 20 feet per day to lose weight.Â Let’s hope our leaders have the courage to take more powerful steps to help keep the United States strong.)

And we face an even more epic problem.Â Today, concentrations of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere are at their highest level in human history — and rising sharply.Â Unless we change course, rising sea levels, more frequent storms, more severe droughts and floods, the spread of tropical disease and forest loss will threaten lives and livelihoods around the world.Â In the words of a dozen retired US military commanders including General Anthony Zinni (USMC-Ret.), “Climate change can act as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world and presents significant national security challenges for the United States.”

Depressed?

There’s good news.Â Solving these problems is the economic opportunity of the century.

From China to northern Europe to Silicon Valley, fortunes are already being made in renewable energy.Â Thousands of companies are cutting emissions while increasing profits by improving energy efficiency and ending energy waste.Â “Green collar jobs” are beginning to revitalize US cities.Â Plug-in electric vehicles could revitalize the US car industry.

What should the next President do?Â First, launch a crash program to end the utter dependence of our cars and trucks on oil.Â Tax incentives, federal procurement and federal research and development funding should be marshaled to put millions of plug-in electric vehicles on the road soon.Â The same tools should be used for advanced biofuels, dramatic improvements in fuel efficiency, natural gas vehicles and mass transit.

For decades, the U.S. government has heavily subsidized oil consumption.Â (How does one value the subsidy to a commodity from having the US President fly to Saudi Arabia to try to talk the down its price?Â Although the most recent effort by a US President to do this was unsuccessful, it has been a priority of Presidents and Cabinet secretaries of both parties for generations to promote the free flow of cheap oil around the world.)Â The cost of programs to help break our oil addiction will be small in comparison.

In launching these programs, we should work closely with other oil-consuming nations.Â Traditional oil diplomacy means securing adequate and reliable supplies.Â 21st century oil diplomacy should have an additional objective: reducing dependence in all nations.

At the same, the US must immediately take comprehensive steps to fight global warming.Â In the past several years, dozens of States and hundreds of US cities have passed laws to control emissions of heat-trapping gases.Â It is long past time for the federal government to do the same.Â The next President should work with Congress to pass such legislation as a top priority, giving the US the strength to participate credibly in international global warming negotiations.

Neither oil dependence nor global warming can be solved overnight.Â But dramatic progress is possible.Â The unusually broad consensus concerning the national security threats from oil dependence, growing awareness of global warming, sharp rise in public attention as a result of high oil prices, and breakthroughs in clean energy technologies such as solar power and lithium ion batteries - in combination - create an unprecedented opportunity for change.

The transition to a clean energy economy will shape the first part of this century.Â The next President can make history by setting the United States on the right course.
David Sandalow is Energy & Environment Scholar and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.Â He is a former assistant secretary of state and senior director on the National Security Council staff.Â He is the author of Freedom from Oil (McGraw-Hill 2007).

10:31Â I would rather lose an election than see my country lose a war.Â Took 20 minutes to get there.Â But he did not suggest Obama did the opposite.Â He implied it, but did not suggest it.

10:32Â Shout out to Petraeus.

10:32Â Crowd responds tepidly to need to keep fighting war.Â That was odd.

10:33Â Is this falling flat with the crowd?Â Certainly not going over like Sarah Palin.Â Lots of chanting of USA, USA, USA, but other than that no huge, sustained ovations.Â More perfunctory, as if there was an applause sign.

10:34Â Looking at the bracelet of the hero who did not return from Iraq didn’t really come across on TV.Â Made it look like he was looking at his watch.

10:35Â “We were elected to change Washington and we let Washington change us.”Â Good line, but tepid applause.

10:37Â “We’re all God’s children and we’re all Americans.”Â Again it feels like the applause is tepid.Â “Letting peoplle keep the fruits of their labor” gets as much applause and “pro-life” and judges who legislate from bench get huge ovation.Â Much more than the lines on fixing what’s broken.

10:38Â Standard tax, spending, and other conservative shibboleths are being contrasted with Obama and crowd is booing Obama’s alleged positions.

10:39Â I don’t think the crowd booing is a good idea — makes them sound really angry and resentful.

10:40Â My opponent promises to bring back old jobs… Huh?Â This is coming from the drill baby drill party?

10:42Â I think the community college line was intentional — anti-elitist.

10:42Â This is a pretty wonky speech, even if a lot of it is the same as what he says on the stump.

10:43Â Spending a lot of time on education.Â Picks on “bad teachers.”Â Wasn’t all of this solved by No Child Left Behind?Â Just gave a shout out to school choice.

10:43Â Republicans love “choice” in education, not so much in other areas.

10:44Â Unlike Palin, McCain is naming Obama by name.

10:44Â “We’re going to stop sending $700 billion to countries that don’t like us very much.”Â You mean like Iraq?

10:45Â He’s stumbled a couple of times in the past few minutes.Â Not significantly, though.

10:47Â “It’s time to show the world again how Amercans lead.”Â How about starting by abolishing torture?

10:48Â This speech is going on too long.Â He’s not going to sustain audience interest the way Obama and Palin did.

10:49Â Audience largely silent as McCain goes through a list of those America is unhappy with — with an emphasis on Russia and Iran.Â Mention of Georgia gets only perfunctory applause.

10:49Â He just said back-to-back that he’d work for better relations with Russia and called them lawless and an empire

10:50Â Not afraid of threats, prepared for them.Â Again tepid response.Â Not a chant of “USA” in sight.Â I think he’s losing the audience — not completely, but I bet many of them are thinking of Palin right now.Â And they’re not on their feet.

10:51Â Build the foundations for a stable and enduring speech.Â Audience stands, but it’s not overly enthusiastic.Â More like a state of the union speech than a rip-roaring partisan barnburner.

10:52Â Shot of some guy looking at his blackberry.Â Not a good sign.

10:53Â You can feel the audience coming down from their Palin 24-hour Palin buzz.

10:53Â I have the record and the scars to prove it.Â Senator Obama does not.Â Creepy grin again.Â Crowd chants “zero, zero.”Â But still not that enthusiastic.

10:55Â I am starting to feel sorry for him.Â This is falling really flat.

10:56Â Now talking about his POW experience.

10:56Â How is an angry crowd greeting him funny?Â Nervous laughter?

10:57Â His POW story is, as always, moving.Â But he should have led with it rather than finished with it.Â He buried his lede.

10:58Â Reminding people he turned down the opportunity to go home gets some of the most sustained applause of the night.

10:59Â Acknowledges that the Vietnamese broke him.Â I give him a lot of credit for that.

10:59Â You know what’s missing here?Â Any reference to his faith.Â No cross in the dirt story.

11:00Â I have a very bad feeling that the Nielsen minute-by-minute tracker of the speech audience will see a steady decline.

11:01Â Crack about Obama as “blessed” and “annoited.”

11:02Â Call to service.

11:02Â Defend the rights of the oppressed.Â But no mention of how this administration has trashed rights.

11:02Â Mentioned God, thanking Him that he’s an American.Â But again, it was just an aside.

11:03Â “Fight with me.”Â Crowd finally goes nuts but he’s talking over them?Â It really hurt his close — it seemed like he wouldn’t pause to build up audience response.

11:06Â Audience cheered louder for Sarah Palin coming out than they did for McCain.Â This is her party now.

In one way this speech was not unlike Obama’s — a solid, workmanlike speech.Â But for Obama, that still means pretty amazing rhetoric that keeps his audience rapt.Â For McCain, it means he lost his audience for much of the speech.Â And he really has to stop smiling, or learn to smile differently.Â His rebukes of Republicans really fell flat, while his stump stuff went over better.Â All in all, pretty flat, except for the part on his POW experience, which was moving.Â But he buried that, and by the time he got to it, I’m guessing that some of his audience drifted away.

In the end I go back to what I said before.Â The crowd cheered more loudly for Sarah Palin tonight than they did for John McCain.Â It’s her party now.

In what might be his most controversial attack ad in a campaign dominated by them, presumptive G.O.P. presidential nominee John McCain today launched a new TV spot attacking Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill)’s two children. . . .

[A]fter the two Obama kids scored in their performance on national television last night at the Democratic convention, “we had to do something to give the American people some straight talk on those two brats,” Sen. McCain said today.Â In the ad, which is being broadcast in key swing states, an announcer intones, “They’re the cutest children in the world - but are they ready to lead?”

. . .The commercial goes on to blast the Obama children for “smiling and giggling but refusing to state their position on offshore oil drilling.”Â While some critics questioned how well the ad would play in living rooms across America, Sen. McCain defended it, telling reporters, “It played very well in all of my living rooms.”

The Connect U.S. Fund has launched a new two-year initiative to help shape debate during the upcoming Presidential transition.Â As part of this effort, theyâ€™ve asked leading thinkers and advocates to talk about what should be the top two or three foreign policy priorities for the next President.Â Theyâ€™ve also kindly allowed us to cross-post the responses here.

Today, weâ€™ll hear from Christopher Paine.Â Posts in the series will appears every Thursday from now to the election.Â You can find the previous posts here.Â Thanks again to Heather Hamilton and Eric Schwartz for making the cross-postings happen.

If we are actually to overcome the security challenges facing the U.S. and the world in the coming decades â€“ rather than merely tinkering with them â€“ the next President will need to constitute a dramatically new paradigm for U.S. foreign policy. This new paradigm rests on four pillars:

(1) Restoration of the UN Charter and increasing adherence of the force of law â€“ not the law of force â€“ as the ultimate arbiter of behavior between and within nation states. This means an end to the era of badmouthing and underfunding the UN system, and the beginning of serious efforts to reform and strengthen it capabilities for preventing and terminating international and civil conflicts, especially those that jeopardize the lives of large numbers of civilians.

(2) Sustainable human development, not â€œglobal economic growth,â€ must become the fundamental objective that the United States shares, and promotes in its relations with other nations and international institutions. That means that the actual conditions of life on the ground for human beings, and for the natural ecosystems they inhabit and will pass on to their children, must become the essential benchmarks of â€œprogressâ€ in our foreign policy.

(3) Renewable energy development and energy efficiency at home and abroad should be made the foremost priority of any new sustainable human development strategy. In fact, the multiple beneficial roles that renewable energy and efficiency technologies can playâ€”in averting climate change, fostering sustainable economic development overseas, minimizing future proliferation risks, and creating good domestic jobsâ€”illustrate the way that the traditionally sharp but often artificial distinctions between â€œdomesticâ€ and â€œforeignâ€ policy are eroding, and none too soon.

(4) At a minimum, the next President will have to dismantle the Bush legacy in National Security Policy, but real progress against 21st century threats will require him to go further, and dismantle the longstanding political-industrial-bureaucratic nexus that observers of our politics have long dubbed the â€œU.S. National Security State.â€ For decades the United States has been locked into a pattern of dysfunctional defense spending that has impoverished virtually every public space, park, transit system, library, school, and health clinic in America. Successive administrations have pursued such costly technological idiocies as missile defenses, airborne lasers, and killer satellites, while maintaining huge nuclear forces to no discernible purpose, and developing a vast and unaffordable array of new conventional weapons to defeat the massed formations of an enemy that has faded into history.Â A major rethinking of U.S. military defense requirements is urgently needed that would free resources for achieving the indispensable sustainable development objectives outlined above.

Christopher E. Paine directs the Nuclear Program of the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, DC, which he joined in June 1991 after five years with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he assisted successful efforts to end US production of plutonium for weapons and underground nuclear test explosions. From 1985-1987, Paine was a consultant to Princeton Universityâ€™s Project on Nuclear Policy Alternatives, a Research Fellow-in-residence at the Federation of American Scientists, Washington, D.C.Â and a staff consultant for nuclear nonproliferation policy with the Subcommittee on Energy, Conservation & Power, U.S. House of Representatives.Â He is the author or co-author of numerous NRDC reports, as well as some 70 articles on proliferation, energy, and national security policy in such publications as Scientific American, Nature, Arms Control Today, Science, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.Â He is a 1974 graduate of Harvard University.

The Connect U.S. Fund has launched a new two-year initiative to help shape debate during the upcoming Presidential transition.Â As part of this effort, theyâ€™ve asked leading thinkers and advocates to talk about what should be the top two or three foreign policy priorities for the next President.Â Theyâ€™ve also kindly allowed us to cross-post the responses here.

Today, weâ€™ll hear from Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr..Â Posts in the series will appears every Thursday from now to the convention.Â You can find the previous posts here.Â Thanks again to Heather Hamilton and Eric Schwartz for making the cross-postings happen.

The Hip Hop Caucus has always seen the Hip Hop Generation, those born after 1964,Â as representative of what we like to call the â€œDream Generation,â€ or the generation Dr. King prophesized, in which all people regardless of race, economic level, religion, or sexual preference, stood together to stand for Justice and Peace.

Throughout the world we find young people from diverse backgrounds who identify with Hip Hop culture and have similar local-to-global issues yet feel alienated or disenfranchised by political systems who do not address their issues.

As we move forward a progressive agenda, it is paramount that we are able to recognize the potential for a global movement around similar issues people face using an inside out approach. We must 1) address local issues that fit into a larger global context and 2) educate (Hip) people on the similarities and affects between local and global issues, and 3) mobilize and move (Hop) people to action so they are active civic participants and hold their elected officials accountable. By working an inside-out approach we have the ability to engage new segments of our democracy, who have not traditionally been engaged in matters concerning US global engagement into this process.

This upcoming presidential election is a unique and timely opportunity to engage new segments of our population into the political process and educate them on foreign policy. We recently launched our voter registration, education and mobilization campaign, â€œRespect My Vote!â€ to capture the energy surrounding this election. We are engaging 18-29 year olds–targeting those that did not attend college– in the political process and ensuring we can maintain contact with them beyond the presidential elections, and mobilize them to the polls. Our campaign is unique because we place equal emphasis on election and post election work. We have chosen this group because only 67 percent of people in this age group feel they can make an impact on their communities and we want to show them they can have an impact on their communities as well as the world.

As part of our voter education campaign we have selected urgent foreign policy issues and will begin familiarizing with the issues for future campaigns.

Climate Change, Food Shortages, and a Green Economy

Our incoming President must address climate change in a very real and urgent manner. No longer can we ignore or thumb or noses at international policy, we must work with the international community to aggressively address climate change because if we do not act now in the 21st century, there might not be a 22nd century for Humanity on this planet.

Without drastic shifts in emissions of greenhouse gases, we will continue to see shifts in rain patterns and temperatures which will deepen the food shortages and drought which we are already beginning to see, especially in parts of Africa. We are also beginning to see a rise in food prices here in the US which have acute impacts on disadvantaged communities

To curb climate change and oil dependence we must find new and creative ways to embrace the green movement, and build a broader social base for our movement. There is also vast economic potential in a green economy which would make way for new technology and industry which can provide new â€œgreen collarâ€ jobs. The Hip Hop Caucus is working with organizations such as Green for All to ensure that disadvantaged communities are at the forefront of the emerging green economy, allowing us to fight both poverty and pollution at the same time.

Proliferation of poverty, Iraq war, and the Iraqi refugee crisis

We must recognize the Iraqi refugee Crisis as both a humanitarian issue and a national security issue.Â While we hemorrhage resources to the war in Iraq, a October 2007 CRS Report cited thatÂ 2.2 million people have been Internally Displaced in Iraq and there are now 2 million refugees in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. We spend upwards of $12 billion per month on this war which has caused a humanitarian crisis and proliferated poverty onto millions of people in Iraq, while our communities in the US continue to suffer from inadequate resources. Anti-US sentiment created by poverty, instability, and our treatment of people combine to provide a great environment for potential threats to US National Security.

Yes, there are policies which need to be addressed the incoming president and 111th Congress but without an engaged citizenry to hold the accountable for their words and rhetoric there will be little change. This is why it is so important to engage our citizenry in meaningful ways. This is why we must make the connections between spending in Iraq and spending in our communities, or the effects of climate change and soaring prices of food as well as the opportunity for our communities to be at the forefront of the Green Collar job movement.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., is a minister, community activist, and one of the most influential people in Hip Hop political life. Firmly grounded in his Caribbean and Louisiana roots, Rev. Yearwood is a fierce advocate for the human and civil rights in the 21st century.Â A powerful and fiery orator, Rev. Yearwood works diligently and tirelessly to encourage the Hip Hop generation to utilize its political and social voice.Â He currently serves as President of the Hip Hop Caucus, a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan, organization that inspires and motivates those born after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Rev. Yearwood is known for his activist work as the National Director of the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign in which he organized a coalition of national organizations and grassroots organizations to advocate for the rights of Hurricane Katrina survivors.Â Â Rev. Yearwood has become an important figure in the peace movement as an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq and the Bush Administration.Â He was an Officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and led the “Make Hip Hop Not War” national tour to engage more young people in the movement for peace.Â Rev. Yearwood was a co-creator of the 2004 campaign “Vote or Die” with Sean “Diddy” Combs.Â He was also the Political and Grassroots Director for Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network in 2003 and 2004, and a Senior Consultant to Jay Z’s Voice Your Choice.

Yes, it was parody.Â And no, I don’t agree with everything she proposes in her spoof campaign ad — for example, I’m not convinced offshore drilling is either environmentally or economically feasible.

But am I the only one who thinks that Paris Hilton’s compromise energy plan makes a lot more sense than those espoused by either candidate?Â At least it moves beyond the gotcha politics that both sides are pursuing so diligently right now and tries to come up with a real solution.

So what does that say about our politics that parody makes more sense than reality?

If I were Barack Obama, here’s what I would say in my next commercial.

Hi, I’m Barack Obama.

You’ve seen a lot of commercials from Senator John McCain, lately.Â Without exception, they’ve been attacks on my character, not my positions.Â I was disappointed that John chose this tack, especially given his repeated promise to run a positive, issues-based campaign.

If my opponent chooses to run nothing but negative ads, avoiding real debate on what matters to Americans, that is his prerogative.Â It would be easy for me to respond with similar attacks.Â But doing so not only would run counter to my principles, it also would continue the divisiveness and distrust that have dominated our political discourse for far too long.

This does not mean I will not continue to challenge his misstatements and distortions. I will not let stand his attempts to disparage my character or question my love for this country.Â But I will not make similar attacks against him.Â Like John, I promised to focus on issues rather than personalities.Â Unlike John, I will keep that pledge.

Earlier this year, John challenged me to join him in a series of town hall meetings held all around this great country.Â We were not able to make that happen, in large part because our campaign staffs focused on petty details rather the big picture.Â I accept my share of the responsibility for that mistake.Â I hope that my opponent will recognize his role as well.

Today, I accept his proposition:Â ten town hall meetings, to be conducted after the conventions, without moderation of any kind.Â I hope that we can hold a real debate on the things that matter to this country:Â the state of our economy; the worsening situation in Afghanistan; energy security; global warming; and yes, how best to disengage from Iraq.

I place only one condition on my participation:Â that Senator McCain stop his deliberately misleading attack ads.Â Then, and only then can we stop playing games and start focusing on what really matters: returning this country to greatness and its people to prosperity.

My name is Barack Obama.Â I hope that you will support me this November.Â I approved this commercial.

I think this would put McCain on the defensive.Â I think the frame would become McCain’s attacks rather than the content of those attacks.Â And I think that ultimately McCain would refuse because he knows he can’t win on the issues.Â And that would make future attacks less credible.

Perhaps more importantly, it would allow McCain a credible way to reclaim his soul from the Rovian vampires now running his campaign.Â Of course, that’s assuming he wants that.

I recognize that there are risks for Obama here:Â some commentators will suggest that he’s avoiding the charges that McCain has leveled.Â But with his new website and ad, he’s already tried that, and it’s done little other than encourage the McCain team to keep attacking.

Obama has an opportunity to demonstrate that old-style attack politics don’t work anymore. Yes, some people won’t get it, and some will criticize a change in tactics no matter what he does.Â But the upside to this bit of political jujitsu is so great that it’s worth that risk.